INTRODUCTION

Forget about the Exorcist, Friday the 13th or The Omen. The
greatest horror story ever has unfolded with the advent of AIDS. It is a horror
story of Oscar Award-winning certainty, starring a virus of mysterious origin
which sweeps across the globe wiping out sexually active men and women,
intravenous drug addicts and recipients of infected blood or blood products like
haemophiliacs and patients with sickle cell disease. The virus can also be
transmitted from an infected pregnant mother to her child during delivery but
usually before that. It's a shocking story with all the right ingredients of
suspense, subtlety, subterfuge, spine-chilling human tragedies and international
imbroglios.

Unfortunately the majority of patients are in the impoverished
nations of Africa and South America where thousands are dying and resources are
overstretched by natural calamities like drought alternating with torrential
rains and floods, civil wars and downright mismanagement of economies. Whereas
in Africa and South America the bulk of patients are heterosexuals, in the
backdrop of complicated geo-political and socio-economic situations, in North
America and Europe the majority of patients are homosexuals and intravenous drug
abusers, both situations setting the stage for the initial inertia by the
controllers of the purse strings:

'Gay communities are being wiped out by this disease, Mr.
President,' - 'Well, I see the hand of God in this, Minister. Remember Sodom and
Gomorrah, old boy?'

'Drug addicts are vanishing because of this virus, Sir,' -
'Well, now, don't you think the Lord knows what he is doing? This is their
comeuppance.

Meanwhile, as the carnage continues, scientists bicker about the
origin of the virus.

'Did the virus come with rock samples from the moon?'

'Was this a virus developed for germ warfare by Americans that
accidentally escaped into the community?' (Russians)

'Was it introduced by the West to wipe out Africans and South
Americans so that they could have the vast resources of the two continents at
their disposal'?' (Africans and Latinos)

'Was the virus a result of the World Health Organization's
successful eradication of the smallpox virus leading to a mutant becoming
pathogenic?' (Armchair experts)

'Was this a virus that has always existed in African monkeys and
was transferred to the black-man through monkey meat'?' (Americans and
Europeans)

'Was this virus due to God's displeasure at the permissiveness
of most societies and man's disregard of the ten commandments?' (Christians)

'Was this a virus made virulent by an increase in ultra-violet
rays, the result of a reduction in the ozone layer due to pollution?' (some
environmentalists)

The South Africans, true to form, postulate the presence of two
distinct viruses, one which seeks out blacks and is very virulent and another
which seeks out whites and is much less virulent!

Meanwhile governments are down-playing the extent of the problem
so as not to scare tourists who bring in the much-sought-after foreign currency
and research funds are disbursed by governments and donor agencies to nations
willing to put up projects for research without asking too many smart questions.

Meanwhile some 'scientists' with their heads, necks and trunks
in warm sand preach that it is all a big con and there is no HIV infection,
while others say that HIV is there, but it is not infectious. But these are soon
discredited after many of them fail the ultimate and perhaps most feared test
for scientists: a torch-light shone in the left ear is visible in the
right ear in most of them, thus casting grave doubts on their ability for
deductive reasoning. But there are many other people who believe that their
brains are there to keep their ears apart, and pay scant attention to the new
watchwords of 'chastity and fidelity in order to save mankind'.

Multinational drug companies see this as a chance to make
billion-dollar killings and potentially beneficial drugs are kept under lock and
key while 10-year patent rights are demanded, to the utter dismay of Third World
governments and worried patients. The other drug dealers in these countries, the
herbalists, are also making a thriving business with 'cures' whose recipients
always end up at the cemetery prematurely.

Will governments pool resources to fight this virus?

Will drug companies find a cure that everyone can afford and
release it before some countries are decimated?

Will scientists find a vaccine to save coming generations?

Will the forces of good triumph over evil machinations of
incurable capitalists out for a quick buck irrespective of the human cost?

'Coming soon to a theatre near you. Do not miss it!'

If only it was another made in Hollywood yarn. Unfortunately
it's not fiction at all. As you know, it's all too true and happening as you
read this. It's a true horror story of frightening proportions, immense
projected national tragedies and also a story of great personal suffering by the
AIDS victims and their families and friends. The individual suffering can only
be guessed at by most people. The torment undergone by the spouses, the children
and other relatives is largely unappreciated and, as for the AIDS victims, they
go through a harrowing experience. In some African countries the euphemism 'slow
puncture' is used to denote AIDS. It's a cruel and impersonal one, but it does
illustrate one of the many terrible facets of this scourge; that most victims
suffer for several years before finally succumbing to one of the many
opportunistic infections or cancers. Looking after AIDS patients can be a
numbing and frustrating experience. With no definitive cure, when the crunch
comes there is nothing that anyone can do for them except allow them to die as
peacefully as possible and with dignity.

I have seen scores of AIDS victims, from children to young men
and women in their prime, and even middle-aged grand-parents. I have witnessed
the immense sufferings by these patients and their families. It's a very
unpleasant sight watching young men and women dying everyday, usually in agony
and sometimes totally confused and disoriented. I have seen dozens of these
living skeletons, self-respecting adults purging on their beds and I have seen
the pain suffered by their close relatives and friends as they watch their loved
ones die, ever so slowly. Yes, l have been to the frontline of AIDS and seen all
this and more.

I would like to share some of my experiences, try and show some
of the individuals behind the statistics; their feelings, their fears and
frustrations, and how their families cope or don't cope. Unfortunately, the
written word cannot really convey the true reality of this disaster as it is
unfolding in many African countries, but I will give it a try anyway.

Why write about these patients at all? Well, the fight against
AIDS is everyone's fight, wherever you may be on this globe. My fight, your
fight, everyone's; and I hope that by bringing to light this not
so-commonly-seen side of the AIDS story, whoever reads it comes out more
determined to do his or her bit in stopping the spread of this modern-day
plague. For obvious reasons, the names of the patients and their families have
been
changed.